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LADOT Set to Install 2 Miles of Bike Lanes on Wilbur Avenue

Bike lanes have been approved along 2.0 miles of Wilbur Avenue from Chatsworth Street to Nordhoff Street. Combined with the 2.0 miles installed on Reseda Boulevard, 4 new miles of bike lanes have been added to the valley in the month of August. LADOT Bike Blog will hash it all out for you, but first we’ll have to take it back to the beginning.

Preliminary bike lane markings on Wilbur Ave, via Streetsblog

Reseda Boulevard

Reported August 15th by Joe Linton on Streetsblog and again on August 23rd by Joe Linton, 2.0 more miles of bike lane have been added to Reseda Boulevard in the Valley. While only preliminary markings were down when Joe reported them on the 15th, thermoplastic bike lanes and appropriate Bike Lane signage were put in place by LADOT crews over the weekend – though Joe points out that not all markings had been completed as of his latest article.

As Joe correctly points out, the bike lanes on Reseda Boulevard are called for in the 1996 LA Bike Plan. The newest 2 miles of bike lanes stretch from Parthenia Street to Devonshire Street. These 2 new miles will complement the existing .8 miles of Sharrows on Reseda from Vanowen to Valerio, as well as the whopping 4.4 miles of bike lanes on Reseda from Vanowen Street to Winford Drive. A 1.6 mile gap, from Valerio to Parthenia, lies between these new bike lanes and the test Sharrows on Reseda. This last remaining gap on Reseda Boulevard is currently in design stages for bike lanes at LADOT. When more information is available for this last stage, LADOT Bike Blog will be there to let you know about it. Once completed, Reseda will offer almost 9 miles of uninterrupted bicycle infrastructure as well as a connection to the Orange Line Bikeway.

Wilbur Avenue

Originally reported on Streetsblog as a 1 mile bike lane from Lassen Street to Nordhoff Street, the scope of the project on Wilbur Avenue is actually 2 miles of bike lanes from Nordhoff Street to Chatsworth Street. The installation of new bike lanes should take place over the next two weekends, starting this Saturday, August 28.

Wilbur Avenue took a very different path towards installation of bike lanes than did Reseda Boulevard. Although, in his Streetsblog articles, Joe Linton claims that the bike lanes on Wilbur are not in the 1996 plan, he’s only half right. The 1996 LA Bike Plan calls for bike lanes on Wilbur Avenue from Tampa Avenue to Plummer Street. While the southern section of the planned bike lane is below Plummer Street, 1.5 of the 2.0 miles along Wilbur Avenue receiving bike lanes are part of the 1996 Bike Plan.

Road Diets

This still would raise the question: Why are we putting bike lanes on Wilbur Avenue below Plummer Street?

The answer is quite simple: There’s now enough room.

Wilbur Avenue is being subjected to a road diet, where 4 travel lanes are being converted to two travel lanes with a continuous turn lane between them. This configuration allows for much safer left turns by drivers without impacting the flow of through traffic. It’s also great for bikes because it creates enough space on the roadway to add bike lanes in both directions. While the new 2 miles of bike lanes on Reseda Boulevard were installed without changing the lane configuration, the bike lanes on Wilbur would not fit without a road diet.

This road diet was triggered by a resurfacing project on Wilbur from Lassen Street to Nordhoff Street and from Devonshire Street to Chatsworth Street. The connecting 0.5 miles of roadway from Devonshire to Lassen, though not being resurfaced, is being subjected to the same road diet to connect these two stretches of newly paved and striped bike lanes. Since a resurfaced street needs to have its lane striping reapplied, resurfacing projects are a great opportunity for LADOT to implement road diets on streets that need them.

This is the time-line:

Wilbur Avenue is scheduled for a resurfacing project by the Bureau of Street Services (BSS).

The BSS alerts LADOT Design about their resurfacing project and schedule, allowing LADOT Design to review and update the striping plan and add bicycle infrastructure.

LADOT Design determines that a road diet, changing Wilbur Avenue from a 4 lane roadway to a 2 lane roadway with a continuous turn lane, would make the street much safer without impacting the current volume of traffic using Wilbur Avenue. Such a road diet allows for the installation of bicycle lanes.

While not the exact dimensions of Wilbur Ave, this gives you a good idea of what a road diet entails

Community Concerns

As covered by LAist writer Zach Behrens, the Wilbur bike lanes installation were subject to an amount of community criticism. The LACBC then mobilized supporters of bicycle lanes to counter this criticism. CD 12 asked LADOT to address community concerns that had been brought to him about the project. With said concerns addressed by LADOT staff, the project proceeded.

When people see bike lanes being added and travel lanes being taken away, the automatic assumption is that travel lanes are being taken away in order to put in bike lanes – and at the drivers’ expense. The truth of the matter is that travel lanes are being reconfigured to make the roadway safer for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians – often without any effect on street traffic. Part of the culture change taking place at LADOT is that whenever such a road diet project is taking place, the first question asked is: Can we fit a bike lane? In the spirit of the soon-to-be enacted Complete Streets legislation – AB 1358 – LADOT is no longer satisfied with simply conducting a road diet to improve driver safety, but looks to use such projects to the advantage of pedestrian and bicycle safety as well.

Criticism for the project seemed to confuse two very distinct aspects of what is happening to Wilbur Avenue. Opposition to the project inferred that it was the installation of bike lanes that necessitated the road diet, but it is the opposite that is true. The fact that bike lanes are being blamed at all shows the continuing culture-change that is going on in the City and at LADOT.

LADOT Bike Blog also wants to make clear that we understand the frustration with the lack of notice or public outreach on this road diet/bike lane project. When resurfacing projects go through at BSS, time is of the essence for LADOT Bikeways to get bike lanes added where we can. In the future, LADOT Bike Blog will do our best to dog-whistle for the bicycle community when road diet/resurfacing projects are upcoming.

With all that being said, LADOT Bike Blog is always happy to see more miles of bike lanes in Los Angeles. When more are added, we’ll be there to let you know.

I live in the valley and I use the Reseda sharrow corridor all the time now…perfect. And now more bike lanes…excellent. A win- win for me.

I’ve said this before hopeful motorist will start respecting bicyclist on the street by seeing more and more bicycle facilities’ on the road and then recognize bicyclist have the same right to be on the road as cars. Let’s keep the positive energy and agenda going for bicyclist in LA. Sweet month so far for bicyclist: the summit, sharrows, bike lanes, and posters.

[…] Valley. It looks like Wilbur Avenue really will get two miles of bike lanes; LADOT Bike Blog says Wilbur is getting bike lanes because it got a road diet, not the other way around. Meanwhile, new bridges at Tampa and Winnetka […]

Informing the relevant parties (e.g. neighborhood councils, council members, etc.) of upcoming projects is better than simply pushing through to save some time and hoping that there won’t be any backlash. Local residents become understandably irate when significant changes are made in their neighborhood and no-one bothers to tell them about it. We could all have been saved some time and effort if LADOT had simply reached out to the community and explained exactly what was going to be done and the benefits of such a project. I’m not buying the argument that there wasn’t enough time to do this.

Next time, let’s have the information out there first, so that local residents and the bicycling community aren’t left scrambling for information, with animosity on both sides.

We think you’re absolutely right, Rach. LADOT Bike Blog is going to try to provide that outreach and forewarning in the future.

We don’t want the point to get lost, however, that these projects aren’t a zero-sum game of car space versus bike space. Too often the debate is framed in those terms. This project was an instance of making a street better and safer for drivers, better and safer for pedestrians, and finding extra room to also make the street better and safer for bicyclists. We acknowledge that the lack of notice on this project led some people to come to their own conclusions of bike v. car conflict.

LADOT has a bit more experience with road widening than with road diets, but part of the ongoing culture change is making road diets (and bike lanes) a priority. Quality of life as opposed to throughput. Explanation, cooperation, and listening to criticism are all part of the learning curve.

just a correction. the LACBC was not responsible for mobilizing anyone to protest for the wilbur bike lanes. The effort came from a resident of Wilbur ave. and a couple friends who went door to door along wilbur.

I think it’s great that the roads are becoming safer for bikers (all 3 of my kids ride), however basically making an already crowded Wilbur Ave a single lane street will cause major problems. Pushing drivers into residential areas for short-cuts, which will put them driving by two elementary schools and a middle school. Again, I’m all for making roads safer for bikers, but not at the cost of children’s safety. When this does happen, everyone will feel sad and wonder how this could have been avoided. Bad planning and shortsighted.

Bob,
Your concerns are understandable, but it wouldn’t be true to claim bike lanes on Wilbur Avenue are “shortsighted”. Wilbur Avenue has been targeted for bike lanes since the 1996 LA Bike Plan was adopted, and they have been carried through to the 2010 draft LA Bike Plan. Bike lanes on Wilbur will provide safe bicycling infrastructure for children to get to Calahan St. Elementary, Vanalden Park, Noble Middle School, the baseball fields along Devonshire Street, and Beckford Avenue Elementary. It also will connect to existing bike lanes on both Plummer Street, Devonshire Street, and provide a bicycle connection to Cal State Northridge. Coupled with educational efforts through the Safe Routes to School program and the Safe Moves program, increasing the number of children riding their bikes to school rather than needing to be driven there could actually decrease the amount of car traffic near schools.

[…] lines of communication. It was cooperation between BSS and LADOT that allowed LADOT to put 2 miles of bike lanes on Wilbur Avenue when BSS began a resurfacing program. This time, however, the lines of communication failed. We […]

So if the street goes black(no lines) and the street is on the bike plan they can add the bike lane. And if you don’t do it at that time, we have to wait amd wait…and will
never get bike lanes at that rate.

Keep on resurfacing those streets that have bike lanes on the bike plan,the more lanes the better.
Why does everyone hate bike lanes in a community setting, it slows down the cars and makes it safer.

Road Diet allows a driver to
cross only one lane of traffic at a time (resulting in fewer blind spots). With an undivided 4-lane road, a driver must find a gap in two or three lanes of traffic at once to make a left turn. In reality, road diets have been found to maintain (and enhance) traffic flow while reducing crashes.
That means that there will be less speeding up and slowing down, and a more consisten pace.

Also, with the addition of bike lanes to the roads there will be less bike traffic on the sidewalks which
can make sidewalks more safe for pedestrians.

Could someone please explain the following section of the LADOT Bike Blog:

“LADOT Design determines that a road diet, changing Wilbur Avenue from a 4 lane roadway to a 2 lane roadway with a continuous turn lane, would make the street much safer without impacting the current volume of traffic using Wilbur Avenue.”

Has anyone from LADOT been out to actually look at the traffic on Wilbur Avenue now that it’s down to one lane each way? Lengthy car back ups at each signal, sometimes for more than 1-2 cycles of the stoplights. I’ve been commuting on Wilbur for several weeks now, and have seen exactly one bike rider using the lanes. This “road diet” has had a huge impact on traffic drive-times; maybe the volume is unchanged but traffic is now awful. Thanks so much!!

[…] Street Services (BSS) would be in attendance at the next BAC meeting to discuss, in light of recent controversies, their procedure for resurfacing streets. The anti-harassment ordinance will go before the […]

[…] over removing even the slightest amount of roadway space for drivers. The controversy over the Wilbur Avenue road diet last year caused quite a bit of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth. In the LA Times, on […]

I have been commuting on Wilbur Ave for 14 years and on the exact “road diet” and I have to let you know that traffic is much worse and the road aggression is on the rise. Before the diet, there was a bike lane on Wilbur already and I do not see the necessity? Like the previous blogger, I have only seen a handful of bikers use the lane. I see impatient drivers who is “stuck” behind a slower driver swerve onto the bike lane just to get around. After they swerve there is a bit of road rage play between the two. Grant it this happens during commuting hours, that commuting hours are 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night. That is more chances of road rage. If that is safety for you, then we need to redefine that word. I would just like LADOT to rethink the “road diet” and observe those hours of commuting to see what us people who actually use Wilbur think. I have nothing against bike lanes. Although I would not like to be that future biker who was swerved into by that impatient driver who wanted to get around the slower driver!